Maximum Ride: Ignorance Is Bliss
by Rebecca Snicket
Summary: The Flock are on the move again, and when everything seems at its most ordinary the Flock make a startling discovery that brings new meaning to the words "Evil Scientist" - I own none of Maximum Ride's awesomeage or any rights to the characters -
1. Chapter 1

**~Chapter One~**

I was on top of the world.

Diving headfirst down, sweeping over the troubled world below, it was incomparable. Surfing along beside clouds, floating through a clear blue sky, drifting effortlessly, a feather resting on a still deep river, the peace, the tranquillity...

My oasis was interrupted as Gazzy zoomed over me, with an effective "vroooooom!" noise, doing 360 degree somersaults in mid air, a childish grin appearing on his freckled face, a look which only an eight year old can pull off.

"And The Gaz shoots into the lead!"the Gasman commentates, "leaving Max behind to face the bitter, dismal and sour face of defeat"

I glared at Fang who was sailing beside me, his eyes closed, his face impassive. "I told you not to buy him that dictionary"

Fang shot me a rare smile, before returning to his own oasis, which luckily for him, had not been so rudely interrupted.

Nudge swept down from her position at the front of the flock, (so that she is the first to see everything and therefore the first to comment) and came to rest beside me, her tawny wings beating in time with mine. I was enjoying the synchronization, until she opened her mouth.

"I know that you said your voice told us to go wherever we're going, but can you tell us all because it never works out when you don't tell us where we're going, like do you remember that time you stopped and flew down to help Ella and you didn't come back for aaages and then the Erasers said you were dead, but I didn't believe them cus you wouldn't just do that would you Max, I guess if you were in a REALLY bad situation like if there was a grizzly bear, how do you think a grizzly bear wou-"

I held up a hand to silence her, and she shut her mouth abruptly. I noticed the rest of the flock were listening, and looked away when I glanced back at them. They trusted me, I could be leading them to the pits of hell and they'd follow. As it happened, I sort of was. At that moment I knew I had to tell them where we were going.

"Ok guys. The voice, lets remember has never steered us wrong before-"

This was followed by a snort of disgust from Total, who was being carried by Iggy in the baby carrier my Mom had given us, what seemed like a lifetime ago. I shot him a glare and continued

"-and you guys said you wanted a new objective..."

"I _think_ what we said is that we were sick of places that were too cold, and we wanted a new place that was less dangerous to stand in, where there wasn't the constant danger of being mauled by various Antarctic animals " Iggy said with an au de sarcasm.

I sighed. It wasn't fair on them that they had to go through so much, without a break. I did a 360 sweep just to check our surroundings, when Angel smiled at me. I had no choice whether she knew where we were going. She seemed unafraid, she'd grown up so much, so quickly in the last year or so.

"We're going back to The School"

As you can imagine, this was not met with mass cheering and balloons.

The flock was silent for the next few minutes. The weather, I had noticed had changed for the worse, grey clouds had replaced the blue sky. Wonderful.

"Max..."Gazzy began

"Yeah sweetie?"

"I don't want to go back there"

Its as if someone then switched the flock from silent to louder-than-anyone-can-possibly-imagine.

"I don't want to go either Max, they're evil, I thought they'd shut down anyway..."

"You've lost the plot Max, we can't go back there, not after what happened last time..."

"This is what happens when there's too much pressure, I read it in _Hello_ Magazine once and lack of food and sleep can cause distress and in some cases insanity..."

"You shouldn't believe everything you read in _Hello _Magazine Total..."

I looked around at the chaos. Fang had said nothing, but now his eyes were open, looking at me. I could see the concern in his eyes, the concern that I had finally gone crackers. Angel was cruising beside me on my left, and she smiled at me again, forever trusting. Celeste's head poked out of a rucksack on her back. I had grown tired of the screams every time she had slipped out of Angel's grasp. The conversation above me had gone from arguing about where we were going, to arguing over what the best magazine was.

"I don't care what you say, _Hello _has always had the perfect amount of gossip in contrast to fashion and popular knowledge"

"Oh come on, I don't even know how you can read that crap. Who cares what's going on in the world and what the latest fashion in hats are, what a magazine needs is cars, sport and the occasional girl in a bikini"

"I care about the fashion in hats! How else can you co-ordinate your outfit? Hats are a very important part of fashion!"

"Why is there no magazine on dangerous gases?"

I flew upwards and got in between them all, and almost hit Total with my 12ft wingspan. "I think it's time we hunkered down guys"

About fifteen minutes later we found a a great big tree in the middle of nowhere, which Fang and I decided would have to do. This pleased the little-uns as it was a while since they'd climbed a tree. It also pleased Iggy as he found the tree was full of acorns, which he happily pelted everyone with. Total was not so happy.

"Its so high up. I think I'm afraid of heights"

Fang and I exchanged a look. "If you're afraid of heights, you're probably with the wrong bunch of mutant freaks" Fang said tiredly.

"OH MY GOD! Guys, check this out!" Nudge's voice seemed to startle a few birds in a tree a couple of miles away.

Reluctantly, I stirred my muscles out of the comfortable position I was in and climbed up to where Nudge was shouting from, closely followed by Fang.

"Isn't this awesome!" Nudge was sitting on the bottom level of what appeared to be a quite extensive tree house. Connected by a couple of bits of old rope was two other higher levels, and right at the top there was even a hammock suspended between two branches.

"What's going on?" Iggy said, whilst hitting Gazzy right between the eyes with a well aimed acorn. His hand rested on the lowest level of the tree house. "Wha-"

I quickly glanced at Fang, who understood me immeadietly and began climbing higher up the tree, checking each branch and level to check it wasn't going to collapse under the weight of six mutated children and a talking a dog. He gave me the nod.

"Ok guys, it looks safe" I said, quite enjoying the overall effect of it.

"Its a tree house Ig," Nudge explained, relieving Iggy of his puzzled expression.

I checked on my flock and saw Total looking concerned as Angel lifted him onto the highest level. He sniffed around a little, and then began to make his mark.

"EWWW! Dibs on not sleeping on Total's piss!"Gazzy yelled

Fang had clambered back down the oak, and we were sitting on the lowest level. He looked at my content expression, and laughed.

"Its so long since I've seen you that happy"

"Its so long since I've heard you laugh!" I smiled at him

"Perhaps its time to call back the troops and discuss you're, um, plan" he said, still wondering what exactly possessed me to go back there. I'd forgotten about it too. I'm betting they had as well. I hated how whenever we were all happy, I always had to ruin it. Fang gave my hand a squeeze. I guess it was time to tell them the whole story.

"Guys" Fang called up. "Come back down here. Max is gonna tell us why she is delusional."

Right. Here goes nothing.


	2. Chapter 2

**~Chapter Two~**

I took a deep breath, and looked around at my flock. Angel and Nudge were sitting with Total on the middle level of our current pit-stop, a quaint little tree house. Can you believe it, quaint! It even had a hammock at the top for humans that could not sleep on branches like bird kids could. Anyhow, I was content, as not only were all of my flock together and safe, that you could see any erasers, flyboys, monsters and tidal waves coming from about 8 miles away, enhanced by awesome bird kid raptor vision. So it was all good.

Iggy was sat on a lower branch. His expression was concerned, and I quickly determined the likelihood of him falling out of the tree. Gazzy, who was sitting next to him, lightly brushed his arm, and Iggy's expression softened.

Fang and I sat on the lower level of our tree-based palace. Fang's face seemed impassive, his breathing was slow and regular,(which always made me feel better) and a lock of his dark hair hung over one of his closed eyes. Problem number 62 of always being on the run. Not enough time for haircuts.

"Ok." I began. "A couple of weeks ago, I was chatting with Ella. We were talking, and she said that Mom had been muttering in her sleep about "screaming". I figured she was worried about something, so I called her the next day."

I checked around at the reactions. Fang's eyes were open now and patient. I figured that he thought I was getting freaked about nothing, which I do a lot I guess. I glanced around at the others. Angel looked shattered. Maybe this should wait till tomorrow.

"Carry on Max" Angel stroked Total's fur and smiled at me. There's time's when a mind reading six year is extremely useful, and times when it was extremely patronising. Three guesses which one it was.

"Right. Yeah. So I spoke to Mom, and she'd been having dreams. Nightmares. Flashing images of...The School, and different rooms inside it. And in each dream she'd get to a corridor. She walked further and further down the corridor and there was one door at the end. And behind the door-"

I looked at the flock's faces and I seemed to have them entranced. Usually I would ruin the mood with "behind the door was THE LOCH NESS MONSTER!" But things were slightly more serious.

"behind the door she could hear crying. Crying and screaming and voices calling "Max". And she said she had the same dream every night"

I paused.

"I was worried. Then the voice told me to go to the school, that something was wrong and we were needed there. I don't want to go but, and usually I'd tell the voice to bite me, but...Mom. I think this is something bad, guys. That we really have to check out."

There was silence.

Then "You guys. You never have a break. This is seriously gonna affect my serotonin levels. Has anyone got prozac?"

Nudge smiled "I don't think dogs can take prozac. Unless they have, like, a specialist unit that makes drugs for dogs that are depressed. Do you think normal dogs can even get depressed? By normal I mean the ones that can't talk. Do you thin-"

Angel coughed, bringing Nudge to a stop. "I totally get that stuff though. Dreams can be really serious things. Do you think if something is wrong we can do something?"

"I don't want to spoil this or anything, but isn't something always wrong at the school? And we're basing this on a dream , and a voice inside Max's head" Iggy interrupted, looking uncomfortable about the whole idea.

"I'm sorry guys. I know we never get a break, and I'm not saying any of you have to come with me. I just – I have to do this."

Gazzy sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve. "It's horrible there Max. What happens when we get their anyway?"

"I have a plan" I lied quickly. One of these days damnit, one of these days I will have a plan. A proper one. Usually my plans consist of "sleep", "eat", "run".

"I'm coming with you" Fang said softly.

"I'll go with you Max" Angel said, confidently. I was surprised, I thought she would want to stay behind more than anyone else. She smiled at me. Hmm.

"Well I may as well go, maybe they'll have some prozac" Total frowned. Angel scratched him behind his ears, and he gave her cheek a lick. Eeew.

"I'll go Max, I'm not afraid of The School, or anything they attack us with. Ooo do you think that they created another gender like we heard from The Director? How would that even work? Unless you had both-"

"I'm with you too. We've kicked butt too many times to be taken down now" Ig said, stopping Nudge's flow, (which this time was probably for the best considering where she was going). Gazzy nodded at me too.

"I'm in." he slapped a determined high five with Iggy.

It's times like these that I feel most happy. I had dropped a bombshell on them and they were still with me. I choked as I felt tears coming to my eyes. Damn those bird kid hormones.

"Th-thanks. I can't do this without you guys. I think we've all had a rough day. Let's get some shut eye" I formed a fist with my right hand and stretched it out, which was followed by my flock doing the same on top of mine, and a final lick from Total.

Around an hour later, I was laying peacefully next to Fang on the lowest level of the tree house, listening to the soft, gentle breathing of my flock, with the occasional snore from Iggy. Angel and Total had settled in the hammock, his small black fur covered body blanketing her. Gazzy was outstretched on the highest level. He frequently turned over, every time teetering closer to the edge, and then rolling back into the middle. On the middle level lay Iggy and Nudge, Iggy's body protecting her from the cold wind.

And here lay me and Fang.

We were awake, just, and were talking about the day's happenings.

"Max" Fang whispered, almost silently in my ear.

"Mmm?"

"I have to talk to you about something"

"What's up?"

"You know that dream your Mom had?"

"Yeah?"

"I've had the same dream, Max"

I sat up, immeadietly hitting my head on a low branch that I swear had not been there before, and stared at Fang with wide eyes.

"You had the _same _dream?"

"It was exactly like you said, the flashing images, the school, the corridor, the door at the end and the crying. I tried to open the door but it was locked, I tried so hard Max, I tried to stop the crying..."

I heard Fang choke. Crap, this was bad. We don't cry a lot generally, we're made of strong stuff, and Fang less than any of us. The fact that he was meant that this was a great big fat problem.

"Hey, its alright." I hushed him and drew him closer to me in a tight embrace. "We'll fix it, I promise. Don't be scared about it, Fang, we'll sort it I swear. It's gonna be fine"

"Max?"Fang brushed away the tears, embarrassed at showing a sign of fear. "Can you do something for me?"

"Sure, Fang. I'll do anything for you. Anything"

"Lie here with me tonight. And let me-"

"Let you what?"

"Will you let me hold you Max?"he couldn't look at me now, his face was flushed with red.

I smiled "Ok"

We cuddled until we both fell asleep. And that night, everything felt a little less scary.


End file.
